


Date Night

by MorningSunshine



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-18 08:06:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9375818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorningSunshine/pseuds/MorningSunshine
Summary: Following "Alexei" and "Justin" (Tater and Ransom) through different date nights.





	1. Chapter 1

Ransom shows up to the restaurant a little nervous. Holster, like a good bro, told him to not wear a suit, so he’s wearing instead his most formal pressed button down and dark slacks. He can feel perspiration building on his body every second he stands in the foyer, which is dimly lit, scanning around for Alexi. The shirt he picked out is a pale pink color. Which probably means he has about twenty minutes before his sweat stains start showing if he keeps sweating like this. He wonders if death might come before dinner, which is honestly looking preferable.

It’s possible he’s more than just a little nervous.

“Justin!” And there he is. He’s beautiful, and Ransom feels his throat dry out. He coughs.

“Alexei. Hey.”

Alexei is just beaming at him, all 6′4″ of him, and Ransom thinks wildly again about his sweat stains and the deodorant he chose and also the fact that he maybe should have worn a suit, because Alexei is wearing something dark and obviously tailored.

“Oh, guess i’m a little underdressed, huh?” He says, gesturing to himself.

“No, no,” Alexei smiles softly at him, “Beautiful.”

Ransom wants to fucking faint.

“Pink a good color on you,” Alexei is saying to Ransom as he leads him to their table, “I’m like very much.”

Ransom can barely focus. Alexei is biting his bottom lip, and blushing a little.

“Wine?” He asks him, and Ransom just nods.

Alexei keeps smiling and pours something red into his glass, and not very much. Ransom eyes the bottle. It’s probably, like, crazy expensive, but he figures he’ll at least try to get half of it down. He took the train up, so it’s not like he has to worry about sobering up. It’ll be barely enough to get a buzz but. Whatever. Hopefully it’ll at least help the nerves. As they wait for their appetizers to arrive, Alexei gently asks about his day. And then his interests. And then his classes. They’ve finished some sort of delicious cheesy appetizer and Alexei is still asking questions about biochem 314 with Professor Barnes which is Ransom’s favorite class this semester. It must be terribly boring for Alexei listen to him blather on about , but he just keeps nodding and smiling and looking at him with those big, gentle brown eyes of his. When their main courses come, Ransom sucks in a breath.

“Wow,” he says, “This looks amazing.”

Alexei spreads his cloth napkin in his lap and nods, smiling. “I know the chef. They make special, just for us.”

“They made a special…just for us?”

“Yes! I tell them I have very special man that I want to bring to dinner, very important, yes? And so they make best dish. A little Russian, a little American. I think is good.”

Ransom suddenly has a hankering for that wine again.

“If you don’t like, can say.” Alexei’s brow is creased, and he reaches across the table to squeeze Random’s hand gently. “No worries. They make something else too.” Ransom can still feel the phantom of Alexei’s warm hand on his and he wants so badly to have it back again. He realizes he’s just staring.

“Oh! Oh no, it’s—oh my god, it’s amazing.”

“Good!” Alexei is beaming at him again, soft and warm in the light of the restaurant. “Is my favorite thing to eat. I’m think, maybe…” Ransom looks up to see Alexei fiddling with his fork. “Next time, we, I cook for you? This. In my kitchen.”

One of the things Ransom had been worried about was getting in too deep, too fast. And he had told Alexei that. That is was important for him to meet in Providence, and not in his small college town. And it was important to not go over to anyone’s apartment, which he hasn’t told Alexei explicitly, though he had been relieved when a restaurant had been suggested, which was a pretty neutral place, as far as first dates went. And Alexei had remembered, and he planned this all so carefully, and had bribed the cook to make this because Ransom didn’t want to go to his home, and now he was carefully asking for a second date.

“Yeah, that sounds…that sounds really good.”

Alexei asks Ransom to order dessert. They eat it together off the same plate, and Alexei keeps blushing and apologizing for eating too much, and then asking if Ransom maybe wants to get another piece. He also takes the check, smiling as Ransom glares half heartedly at him, hands clutching at his wallet.

“No, no, I get. You give me gift, come here, good dinner, great company…let.”

Ransom is so thrilled that he made it through dinner without too much sweating or spilling anything on himself that he lets it go, realizing that he hadn’t really thought about after. His anxiety starts up but Alexei has a plan, leading him through the cold, winding streets of providence. Alexei takes him to watch the lights on the river. And it’s beautiful. He orders them huge paper cups of hot chocolate at some artsy coffee shop and then leads him to a park bench. It’s a little cold, after a while, and so they walk around, looking at the different Christmas lights and talking.

Eventually it’s Ransom who notes the time, thinking of having to take the train back, and they finally end up back at the restaurant they began their evening at. Alexei smiles at him.

“Park close to here?” He asks.

“No, I took the train.”

Alexei’s brow furrows. “Take the train…here? No car?”

Ransom shakes his head. “Nah, it’s cool though. I knew I was gonna drink a little anyway, and honestly, like, it’s not that bad. Better than battling traffic out of town.”

“I’m call car.”

“Wait, what? No, no. It’s fine! I didn’t bring money for a cab anyway!”

Alexei rolls his eyes at him, phone already up to his ear. “I’m call my car. For you.”

“Wh..why?” Alexei blushes. “Train cold. And not want you to be sad. Alone. On train.” He speaks some russian into the phone, laughs, and then hangs up. Then he looks at Ransom. “I worry.”

“You’re great, do you know that?” It bursts out and Ransom didn’t really mean to say it, but it’s true. The dinner, the walk, and now the car…Tater has been romancing him. And he’s been romanced. Thoroughly, completely. Alexei’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Yes? I think…I screw up, a little. Not like dinner? I ask for second date too soon,” Alexei’s counting on his fingers, “bad! Is cold outside for a walk, I talk about hockey? Too much? I’m talk about self? Too much? I let you take the train here,” he emphasizes the lasts words, shaking his fingers at Ransom. This is obviously the most terrible offense in his mind.

Ransom snorts. “Um, yeah, Ok. You got me. I really hate when beautiful men call me beautiful and treat me to great food and wine and let me talk about Bio for a half an hour and then take me on romantic walks. Terrible.”

Alexei laughs, and he looks hopeful. “Terrible? You not want to do again?”

Ransom shakes his head. “So terrible. The worst. So you should definitely text me tomorrow so we can set up another terrible date.”

“I make better.”

“I seriously doubt that. This was one of the best i’ve ever been on.”

Alexei grins at him, and he has a determined look on his face that makes Ransom want to melt. “I make best. You see.”

A sleek black car pulls up, and Alexei opens the door for him. “Thank you, Justin.” He says, serisouly. “Thank you for being nice to me for terrible date.”

Ransom laughs. The driver smiles at him as they pull away. “I’ll have you home in about an hour and a half, Sir,” he says, “maybe two, if there’s bad traffic.”

“Thanks,” Ransom says, and means it, thinking of the cold of the train. He’s not even 15 minutes into the ride home when his phone pings. It’s not the team or his family, because it’s not specialized. And the probability of it being a random from class is low, since it’s a friday night. He grins.

He’s going to have so many deets.


	2. The Second Dinner Date

The car pulls up in front of the apartment and Ransom makes himself take a deep breath. He’s not that nervous. Really. He’s not lying to himself at all, not this time. This time, he’s wearing a suit, unlike last time, because he really did feel underdressed the last time they met. And Alexei had said he liked him in pink, so that is what he’s wearing. The sound of his suit jacket, a light pink, crinkling against his dark blue shirt makes Ransom grit his teeth. Oh my god. Should he have brought some sort of mini-steamer? His whole entire life is mistake.

  
He honestly considers asking to drive away, just to figure out the suit situation, but when he looks up he scan see a figure in the window. He huffs out a breath, remembering the way Alexei’s cheeks had flushed when he thought Ransom hadn’t had a good time on their first date. He might not be the only one that’s a little nervous.

  
Walking up the stairs to the apartment, Ransom just wishes his nerves would get a little better. The little bumps of anxiety are easier to handle. But sometimes it’s hard to know when they’re going to be little bumps or more intense bouts of doubt in very expensive town cars. And sometimes it’s the little bumps that make him want to do things like drive away and not go in the house at all.

  
He knocks on the door and counts to three before Alexei swings the door open. He has an apron on that’s splattered with various foodstuffs, and his cheeks are warm from the heat of the kitchen. Something smells amazing, and Ransom can’t help but tipping his head back and groaning a little.

  
“Oh my god. Please tell me that’s going to be ready soon.”

  
Alexei ducks his head and smiles down at him. “Be ready soon. I get a little late, had to go to store to get something. Think I forget, you know! Can’t forget cream!! But then I look, see, have. Silly Alexei.” He’s flinging his hands around as he talks, leading Ransom through his entry way to his kitchen.

  
Ransom takes the apartment in–it’s big, but not flashy,considering what Alexei is working with his his bank account and the three sports cars he has in the driveway that speaks to his personal taste. The kitchen is maybe the nicest room in the house, and Ransom tells him so.

  
Alexei shrugs, stirring whatever it is on the store. “I like to cook,” he tells him, like Zimbonni’s boy.”

  
Ransom shakes his head and chuckles. “I don’t hunk anyone can top Bitty. Sorry.”

  
Alexei smiles. “Fair,” he says. “How team?”

  
It’s the first time they’ve really talked about the intersections between their two groups, and it’s natural for Ransom to slip in to talking about the team. Alexei pours him a glass of wine and Ransom feels himself unwind, propping his chin in his hands as Alexei cooks. Alexei laughs in all the right places, his eyes sparkling when Ransom brings up Jack, and then Bitty. But he wants to hear about Holster, too, and then the frogs, and even some of the tadpoles that Ransom is most worried about this season. He struggles with the frog-tadpole system, until Ransom explains that it’s like the collegiate version of ranking their own rookies.

 

  
“Ah!” Alexei’s eyes light up in recognition and he pours Ransom another glass of wine. “Rookies! I see, cute!”

  
Ransom gets lost for a moment, tracing his eyes along Alexei’s jaw.

  
“Wine OK?” Alexei looks concerned. “Whant water? Is hot in here, no?”

  
Ransom can feel himself blush and lowers his eyes. “No! It’s fine. Um, when’s dinner?”

  
Alexei laughs, loud. “Is here! I have.”

  
He pulls out plates and shushes Ransom when he offers to help, setting big heaping piles of food on the table. It smells heavenly.

  
“Is this soup?”

  
Alexei smiles at him. “Is soup with fish. Russian. Is good, try.”

  
Ransom does try, and he has to admit it is good. Alexei made bread, too, fresh out of the oven, and they tear off hunks of it to eat and pour fresh glasses of wine. Halfway through dinner Alexei bolts up, startled, and Ransom panics, but Alexei just bustles around lighting candles. Ransom can’t help but laugh at him.

  
“What! Is most romantic! I say I make good this time!” Alexei mock-scowls at him.

  
“Yeah,” Ransom bites on his lip, trying to contain his laughter. “No, it’s really, really good.”

  
Alexei smiles at him again, and Ransom notices that he hasn’t yet taken his apron off. When he points it out, Alexei spins away, blushing furiously and muttering to himself.

  
“So, were did you learn to cook?” He asks gently, to change the subject.

  
Alexei’s face smoothes out again. “Home,” he says, and the simple happiness that shines through him speaks of comfort. “Mama, Papa.” He shrugs, waving a hand, as if the details aren’t important. “Family.”

  
“Even the bread?”

  
“Especially the bread.” Alexei rolls his eyes, “Mama expert at bread. Alyosha, too much roll! Too much water, bad, Alyosha!”

  
Ransom throws his head back and laughs. “Yeah, my mom sounds like that too. Maybe less Russian. But definitely with the instructions and the yelling.”

  
Alexei cocks his head to the side. “Yes?” He asks. “Where she now?”

  
“She lives with my Dad, and one of my sisters whose still in high school. Um, outside of Toronto.”

  
“Canada,” Alexei nods solemnly. “Like Zimbommi. She teach you to cook too?”

  
“Yeah. Nigerian food, you know, like jollof rice, pottage…You know what, i’ll just make it for you sometime. You’ll like it, I promise.”

  
“I’m like that. Very much.”

  
They finish dinner just as the clock nears 9:30, which is when Alexei’s town car will be outside, waiting to drive Ransom back to Samwell. Alexei had proposed it, and Ransom had agreed, because it would be nice to not have to take the train and also because it would create the date into a structured thing, with a beginning and an end. Ransom didn’t do well with things that weren’t structured.

  
Still, taking in Alexei, who looked much more relaxed with dinner and four glasses of wine in him, Ransom wonders. If the car wasn’t outside, if the routine hadn’t been already set, how easy would it be to stay? Maybe not even for sex. But he can imagine getting out of his suit and lounging on Alexei’s couch and maybe finishing off another bottle of wine and going to bed in this super nice apartment and sleeping in the in the morning, only to be awoken by a soft kiss.

  
“You stare,” Alexei tells him quietly, and Ransom swallows.

  
“Do you want to kiss me?” He asks, feeling shy and embarrassed. He shouldn’t, he knows. He doesn’t usually. But it’s quiet in the house, and somehow making a fool of himself here in this moment is more daunting that making an ass of himself at a kegster in front of 200 people.

  
“You want to kiss me?” Alexei asks back.

  
Ransom sighs. “I asked you first.”

  
Alexei chuckles, swaying back and forth on each of his feet. “I want to kiss. If you want to kiss, I come over there.”

  
“Come over here then.”

  
Alexei’s lips are warm, like Ransom expected, and also chapped from hockey. Ransom’s are too, he’s sure. They’re also soft and broad and Alexei has to tip his head down to meet Ransom’s, which is the bomb.

  
“OK,” Ransom says, when he feels like it would be rude to make the driver wait any longer. “Call me tomorrow, yeah?”

  
Alexei pulls away, his eyes glassy and his lips somehow redder than before.

  
“OK.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes hello sorry I am so slow :))))

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on Tumblr! http://halohalohalosong.tumblr.com


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